


Dracula Was at Least Honest

by MrUndisclosed



Series: NSR- Withinfinite [5]
Category: No Straight Roads (Video Game)
Genre: Gothic architecture my one weakness, Rarely a smart idea, The real pain comes later, Vampires, With someone that has issues with humanity, debatng the morality of a monster, don't worry he's fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29679588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrUndisclosed/pseuds/MrUndisclosed
Summary: Eve and Zuke have a discussion somewhere unusual about monsters and the people absolutely desperate to make excuses for them. It's not the best topic for discussion but when you're locked in you're stuck with it.
Series: NSR- Withinfinite [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151441
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Dracula Was at Least Honest

“I thought, Zuke, that we might discuss monsters.” Her voice carries through the air and Zuke blinks until the world comes into view. He’s alone in a carriage, stopped dead in the middle of the road. He feels sore, coming here always made him just a little sore. 

This place for him and for her. The Withinfinite as Eve dubbed it- still a killer damn album name- this little creative space she had hollowed out within the core of herself. Zuke had an invite and sometimes she wanted to talk with him in a way beyond words. 

“A not scary topic at all,” he pushes open the carriage door and it’s a long breath that drags itself free of him. A grand building, vast and alone in a landscape of endless mountains and dire trees. Forests that have long since escaped the hands of man and where nature makes her garden, there is no design there save for growth and flourishing flora. 

The building is a castle, towering and steepled like something from a fairytale without the charm. It’s dark, all stone and slate and rough walls. Assaults have been thrown back from this place and it has never fallen. It’s as real as real gets, the windows all pink and the walls all white. 

“Welcome to my house!” Eve’s voice coming from the castle, the vast gates opened with her words, her exhalation the sound of the hinges on the wind. “Enter freely and of your own will. Come freely.” She goes on and he has nowhere else to be so he moves forward. 

“Do you recognize it, Zuke?” 

“Go safely; and leave some of that happiness you bring.” Zuke concluded as he entered the courtyard. Bare, barren, this place is empty. But of course it is, he knows exactly where this is supposed to be. “IS how I think that little speech ends, Eve.” 

“I thought you’d know it.” Her voice again sounded so pleased. “I have been considering it recently and the strange fascination some people have with finding excuses for monsters.” 

“Dangerous topic.” Zuke replied looking around, watching all the windows for silhouettes. “Dangerous subject matter as well, Eve.” He said this aloud mostly to show he was engaged, he was sure he was safe. She told him she wouldn’t hurt him. So she wouldn’t hurt him. 

At least she wouldn’t do anything she thought would hurt him. What she thought would hurt and what did could be worlds apart. 

“It is, isn’t it?” 

Zuke moves deeper in, deeper into that place that has no life. A mighty edifice built in a wild untamable place, a dare and a boast. It could be tamed, it could be cowed if only you were as strong and brave enough as the master of this place. If only you could be so great then this relic, all alone could be yours. 

“But still people are fascinated by the story, it will never go away and every few years someone adds a new layer, a new twist, a new dynamic and more and more they add a new excuse.” Her voice comes from up ahead and he moves toward it, hands in his pockets. Soon he comes to that grand foyer, stairs of stone that climb higher and higher into the lofty heights of that sepulchral place. There’s no warmth here, there’s nothing but her.

Dressed in a tight waistcoat, a pair of tailored trousers that cling to her long, long legs. All bright reds, glowing stones hang from her wrists and around her shoulders a long floor length cape, the inside an endless night. 

She moves toward him, walking down the stairs that seem almost too big for a human being. It’s soundless as she moves, arms spread wide. “Why do you think they make excuses for monsters, Zuke?” 

“I think we dislike the idea of a thing that looks so much like us being so...other.” Zuke tells Eve as she draws up to him. He’s not sure what this is yet, where this is going to go. “Stories of creatures like...well...him are equal parts enchanting and nightmare, aren’t they?” 

“Are they?” Eve reaches out for Zuke and adjusts a stray hair from his face. “I never found them much enchanting but I always found this one and his story at the very least...honest.” 

“That’s...a word for Count Dracula.” Zuke said putting the name out there, letting her know that he was on the same page as her at the very least. “The costume is nice, not quite sure he was so impeccable in the castle scenes.” 

“Allow me some luxury.” Eve replied with a tight lipped smile. “Greeting you in some old robe felt rather dry considering the effort this place required.” Eve moved toward a grand fireplace, chairs sat on either end. She didn’t bother to build the fire, she waved a hand and there it was. 

“I seem to remember...Dracula did his own chores.” Zuke said with a grin before flopping back on the towering chair, leather pulling him down until he was nearly on the floor. Comfy, yes, dignified, no. 

“I do my own chores.” Eve said. “It just happens I can accomplish them with mental effort over physical effort.” She sits in her seat, posture impeccable and flawless. We’re going for that otherworldly vibe then. Zuke adjusts and steeples his fingers. “Partial credit, Zuke, give me that.” 

“Sure, Eve.” He smiles and leans back, letting the heat wash over him. There’s a crackle of logs and then quiet. Just long quiet as they sit with each other. Her and him, countess and...well he supposes he’ll have to work out if he’s Seward or Harker. “So….Dracula, eh?” 

“Yes. Dracula.” Eve went on. “Vampire fiction is one rife with imagery but at the same time beyond that it has many unavoidable trappings. Ruts that are carved deep and cavernous. There’s nothing wrong with that but I suppose you can lay all blame at the foot of the original.” 

“All great artists steal.” Zuke said with a nod. “Dracula was a weird work, told from the point of view of over five characters but everyone….weirdly wrote like the same exact dude, didn’t they?” 

“Yes, all very florid and descriptive in the same ways.” Eve laughs at that. “A lot of people all clearly had the same english teacher.” 

“Writers always sound like writers.” Zuke shrugged. “ Still it was a novel that carried itself pretty well...Some of the movies are better for cutting parts out but-” Zuke exhaled. “That sounds like a different, different topic.” 

“It does.” Eve agreed with a nod. “I want to talk about monsters and the excuses we have made for them.” She said it flatly and was to the point. He didn’t need to wonder about why that was a topic she wanted to discuss. “Do you recall Dracula’s plan, the big intention of his scheme before all the business with Miss Mina?” 

Zuke pursed his lips and considered. Drumming his fingers on the rich leather seats and listening to the wood pop and crackle, awaiting his response. Eve wasn’t breathing, he noticed that right away. She didn’t always breathe but she was making an effort not to right now. 

He really hopes this isn’t some kinky roleplay thing, he really doesn’t think he can outrun that here… He can’t outrun her here at all, he’s at her mercy here. 

“I...can’t, actually.” Zuke leaned this way and that and the chair groaned as he moved. “Most of my memories come from the movies, the book was….a long time ago for a mandatory class.” 

“Quite alright, the story has changed and mutated over the years.” Eve went on. “Much like the count himself, as time moved forward things were changed and what was once a background moment has become the foreground.” She tapped on the arm of her chair. “He wanted very much to spread his curse.” 

Zuke supposes that makes sense. “At that time he was set to march upon a cultural capital and global power, it makes sense to spread his curse and get minions out of it.”

“He was at the end of the day an invader and he wanted to be so again.” Eve said leaning to one side and looking into the fire. The flames blurred and flickered, hands moved through the fire stroking more life into itself, warmer then. “That said we never are told directly that he has a reason for this beyond...simply wanting to invade. Ideas have been hoisted, a particular fellow thought it the plan to usurp the entire empire and create a new one for the undead. That’s a fine book series.” 

“I’ll have to look it up,” Zuke said it was rare for Eve to throw praise out, “if you’re saying it’s good.” 

“Oh it’s fine.” Eve said, not so much praise. “Well assembled, shall we say.” Eve went on with a nod. “There is the theory he was alone and felt isolated among his own people, those he’d spent years abusing and eating alive and so no longer could he see them as people. They were livestock that he had taught to be afraid of him, to love him and hope he might be gentle when he came among them.”

“Yeah I can see not being able to become buddies with those guys.” Zuke said airily, wondering where in the world we were heading. “So he wants other people like him but the only way to get people like him is to spread a...pretty nightmarish disease.”

“Not quite.” Eve looks away from the fire and out of the vast windows into the night sky. A lone moon sits out there, spying down on the and illuminating the forest below. “A thing people forget because it’s rarely touched on outside of the book is that it doesn’t work like that.” 

“You’re gonna have to remind me here, Eve.” Zuke really hadn’t read the book in….well a long time. The last vampire picture he saw was with Eve and had the title of Attack of The Vampulons of Disco9. It was not high art...but it was high entertainment. 

“He didn’t start out that way, none of the do.” Eve looks at Zuke, big green eyes that look down at him half lidded. Tired maybe? Bored perhaps? “The vampires are all for the most part feral creatures who have to be contained, trapped and locked away until they are desperate. Then they build themselves back to being human.” 

Zuke leaned on his arm and looked into the fire. Was that how it worked? He hadn’t read it in a long time… 

“Dracula spent years working his way back to being a man. He had all this power, all the ferocity and fury and these abilities nobody else had. All that and he had to learn how to walk like a man, talk like a man and be civil all over again.” Eve hasn’t taken her eyes off him as she goes on, standing and moving over to him, slowly. “I think that if that old count hadn’t bothered with that, had just continued as he was then he’d have lived a much longer time but I don’t think he’d have considered it living.” 

She’s near him now, walks around the chair he’s sitting in. He follows her out of the corner of his eyes, she’s certainly doing an impression of this sort of genre isn’t she? He isn’t sure if he’s supposed to run or stare until his tongue rolls out of his mouth. 

“Surviving isn’t the same as living.” Zuke said after he felt like the conversation had been quiet for too long. He can hear her laugh at that, a hand on his shoulder almost has him jump. 

“Exactly that.” Eve breathes at his neck. “Exactly that, Zuke. He could survive forever but could it be called living?” She speaks and he shudders at the words. “That said he offers no excuses, no explanation and no remorse. He wanted and he took all that he wanted.” 

“Eve…” Zuke coughs. “Please don’t actually bite me.” 

“No?” Eve laughs a little, her breath warm. “You don't want the disease, Zuke? What if it works like that? What if a little nip, a little time and you’d be just like me?” Her voice is heavy and he feels a nail scrape along the back of his neck moving a few hairs. 

“It...doesn’t work like that.” Zuke replied firmly. 

“Out there. We’re not out there. You’re in here, in a place where nothing is exactly the way it’s supposed to be.” Eve goes on. “What if it does? A moment of pain in exchange for everything I can do? Everything I can do you could do too, doesn’t that sound worth a moment of pain?” 

That’s….certainly an offer. Eve had abilities, Eve could do things that would make life a lot easier. Eve could fly, Eve could go wherever she wanted and she never had to stop or slow down or take a break. If you were like that you could get everything done, you could do it all eventually. Eve was superhuman, Eve was unreal and Eve was glamorous. 

“It’s not just a moment of pain though is it?” Zuke asks and he feels her breath on his neck again. She walks around him and with a wave of her hand the chair on the other side of the room hurtles across the room to her. She sits down just in front of him, still imposing and still rigid. 

“No. It’s not.” Eve goes on her eyes still hard but her mouth turned up at the edges, pride? “You see that’s why I think we make excuses for our monsters. Our Draculas who at the end of the day wanted company and some people are willing to keep the company of monsters if it will let them be just a little bit monstrous.” 

“You’re not a monster.” Zuke tells her and Eve rolls her eyes at that comment. “Oh you’re not, don't be dramatic.” 

“I am other, Zuke. I am not a monster for the sole reason that acting like one does not interest me right now.” Eve went on. The fire crackled, the windows groaned and the light of the moon went away. In the sky hung fat clouds and the forest came alive with furious sounds of the night. Zuke didn’t move when her shadows crawled the walls, where they touched the walls turned to writhing twisting flesh. Muscle flexed and seeped fluids that dripped all over. The dark became an organic wall around him. The fire raged on and it’s dance changed the walls from stone to flesh and back again. 

“I wanted the same things the count wanted. Company, maybe understanding, unquestioning love.” Eve went on. “What marks him as a monster and not me?”

“Well you didn’t kill anybody or hurt…”

“Zuke.” Eve looks at him. “I hurt someone. Minimum one person.” 

“I’m still here.” Zuke said. 

“So Renfield is it?”

“Ouch.” Zuke replied. “You invited me to the castle, clearly I’m a little above that.”

“The visitor Seward, do you know why Dracula invited him to his castle?” Eve asked. “I mean...if not I can supply that information, I’m thinking we should have had this conversation after a brief refresher…” Eve pursed her lips and this entire horrifying living castle affect was rather ruined by her sudden bout of worrying if her company was a bit too dim. 

Zuke could be trusted to keep up. Reading between the lines was a skill but clearly his memory retention was...lacking.

He remembers Rupturika. He remembers the places he went after that. He remembers an old hotel and an elevator that kept breaking down. He might remember an old key to a gilded cage.

He can’t remember that place clearly, it fizzes at the edges. When he looks to Eve the reel gets caught, something sizzles and pops and the film spoils. What was the name of that place? That old hotel? 

“I...remember enough.” Zuke groaned pulling his legs up into the chair, not wanting to stand in….whatever Eve was doing with the floor. “He was like there to...set up buying real estate and stuff.” Zuke said cuddling his knees and resting his chin on them. “Right?”

“Yes!” Eve clapped at that and paused, letting her hands fall back to her sides. Oh great we’re back to spooky, huh? “He was there to do that but he was also there for another reason. Many movies would have you think it’s to get at Mina but no it’s because he wanted to learn to be human again.”

“Oh!!! Oh yeah.” Zuke clapped and pointed to Eve. “He wasn’t willing to be looked at as some wacky guy with an accent. He wanted to sound like a guy from there, right?” Zuke goes on and her mouth twitches at the edges, scary Eve is not even a little good at hiding the delight she feels when someone is following along. 

“That’s right. He wants to be the same as he is at home. A lord, a ruler, he wants to be the same wherever he goes.” Eve takes a slow breath. “He invited the man here to do what he’s done with everyone he ever brought to this lifeless old castle. He wanted to consume him.” 

The castle quakes and Zuke can only really nod as the place strobes between real and unreal. Brick one moment, guts the next. Windows one moment, veins stretched taut the next. Doors at one time, teeth the next. Zuke kisses his own teeth and...yeah he’s not sure where we’re going now. He was keeping track for a bit there but this is a hard turn into...someone hug me town. 

“Eve… are we umm...is everything good?” Zuke asks really hoping the answer is a quick yes. 

“I am unsure.” Eve replies and well that just doesn’t help much. Her eyes go back to him and he’s not sure what he sees there anymore. She won’t look at him for more than a moment. “We make excuses for monsters Zuke because we find something familiar in them. Or we envy what they have and we hope, quietly but intensely if we can find affection in the predator it won’t eat us.” 

Zuke watches her rise up again. The castle stops moving, as she walks forward the facade falls down. The walls tumble, the ground courses and moves and the fire flows like water toward her. The walls are gone, they slide under her long cloak, the windows are her eyes, the towering edifice the grand power that tamed the mountains was never a place it was her. It was all her, it was part of her and so was everything else here. 

“The castle was just another trap, the forest is scary but the old castle with one man and his thousands of victims trapped inside was worse.” Eve left him a chair to sit in but he’s frozen to the spot. Aware a sudden move is a bad idea in these situations...he thinks. He has no idea what to do or say now, he’s trying to solve the riddle before...he doesn’t know what comes if he doesn’t figure out what she wants to say. 

“I’ve let you in somewhere impossible to escape, but Zuke...what if it’s just my jaws. Have you considered that?” She looks down at him, slowly the air grows colder. He’s officially lost, we’re off the map. 

“I umm..” He stammers as her hands clamp down on his wrists and he’s stuck. Should have run? “I gotta be real with you Eve, I don’t know where we’re going here.”

“Perhaps the monster doesn’t….want to be a man anymore.” Eve smiled at him, teeth this time. Fangs. “Maybe survival is enough, living is very hard. But surviving that’s enough for some of us.” 

“You’re not a monster, Eve.” Zuke and she looked down at him, her eyes cold and hard. 

“Oh...Zuke…” Eve said. “I don’t want you to be stuck making excuses for me.” She leans in, jaws wide. Too wide, he feels teeth scrape the length of his throat.

“Eve...you said you wouldn’t hurt me.” Zuke reminds her. 

“You’re not there. That’s a safe place.” Eve tells him. “This is your mind Zuke.” He isn’t sure what to do with that but then she bites down, hard. He feels a scream racing upward, a hand in his hair and then a swift, hard, twist.

“Tried to warn ya, bud.” 

\---

Zuke sits bolt upright and wants to scream but hits his head on a sewer pipe. “AHHHHHHHHH….” HE wants to curse but he doesn’t. “NO….awwwwwwhhh god.” Zuke snaps rubbing at his forehead. 

“Wah!?” Mayday is up guitar in hand, ready to brawl. “WHAT!? IS IT GATORS!? HAVE THEY COME FOR MY HANDS!?” 

“No...I ha…ow my god.” Zuke rubbed at his forehead. “I hate this pipe so much.” Zuke rattled feeling his head for any blood. 

“Ummm…” Mayday looked at her bunkmate/bandmate. “So….?” She lets her hands slap at her side. “You good?”

“No I think...Oh I might have a concussion...I absolutely had a nightmare.” 

“About what?”

“I….Do not remember.” Zuke was sure it...involved water, right? Something with your awful vampires movies.” Tears at the edge of his vision, he chewed on his misery. “Tatiana did this to me, she brought up bad dreams. I only get bad dreams when I think about them.” 

“Why you talking about bad dreams with her?” Mayday asked, eyes narrow. “She trying to get in your brain? Do crazy stuff? Crazy brain stuff?”

“Maybe.” Zuke said. “She’s...asking me weird things. She’s kind of a weird old lady.” 

“Oh totally.” Mayday said with a sigh. “So…am I coming up there or are you coming down here?” 

“I’m going down there.” Zuke muttered, sliding over to the ladder he didn’t need and taking the two big steps to the ground. Mayday got back into her bed, guitar placed back on the wall mount. The heat it radiated was enough to make sleep easy for the pair of them. No more huge heating bills, they had the power of rock, literally, to keep them warm. 

Zuke moved in beside her and May wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in tight. Resting her chin on the top of his head. “I’ll keep ya safe man.”

“I know you will, May.” Zuke was sure he’d have a bump there tomorrow. Huge, almost a second head. “No more vampire movies for a while.”

“Zuke...it’s a six movie series.” Mayday said flatly. “We’re absolutely watching more.”

**Author's Note:**

> He's fine! They used this same trick in Dracula, the fake out dream death! None of this was original, right!? 
> 
> The next part starts up a multi-chapter fic, I promise. Zuke's got some weird gaps in his memories and there's a couple people making weird assumptions. If I were him I'd look into that, but I ain't.


End file.
